The fourteenth-ranked men’s squash team continued its winning ways in NESCAC play last Tuesday, when they took on Amherst in a home match at the Bates Squash Center.
The Bobcats dominated from start to finish, winning the match 9-0 and dropping only two games total.
Ahmed Abdel Khalek won in straight sets in the No. 1 spot, followed by junior Kristian Muldoon, who won at the No. 2 spot in four tough sets.
Senior captain Walter Cabot, senior RJ Keating, and sophomore Andy Cannon rounded out the top five, with all three players winning their matches in straight sets.
“It is always nice to beat a NESCAC opponent, especially in front of a home crowd,” said Cabot, adding “winning 9-0 makes it that much sweeter.”
The Bobcats had the rest of the week off before traveling to Connecticut for the Yale Round Robin.
Bates faced a trio of top-ten opponents in New Haven, starting with #4 Cornell on Saturday morning. Despite another dominant win by freshman Abdel Khalek at the No. 1 position, Bates fell to the Big Red 7-2. Abdel Khalek won the first two sets of his match 11-4, 11-5, before opponent Nicholas Sachvie retired.
Fellow freshman Caran Arora scored the only other win of the match for Bates in the No. 8 spot, taking down Cornell’s Matthew Shang in four close sets, 11-9, 11-8, 8-11, 11-4.
The Bobcats took a short break before returning to action later that day against #7 Franklin & Marshall. Abdel Khalek once again breezed through his match, taking care of All-American Guilherme De Melo in straight sets, 11-6, 11-2, 11-3.
The only other Bobcats to win games in the match were Muldoon at No. 2, Cannon at No. 5, and Arora at No. 8. All three went down in competitive 3-1 matches.
The Bobcats closed their weekend on Sunday against 8th-ranked Dartmouth.
Despite another win by Abdel Khalek in the No. 1 spot, the Big Green came away with a comfortable 7-2 victory, leaving Bates winless on the weekend. Abdel Khalek took down All-American Christopher Hanson in three easy sets, 11-3, 11-5, 11-4.
Cabot had the only other Bates win on the day. Cabot, playing in the No. 3 spot, fought off a ferocious comeback attempt by Dartmouth’s Kyle Martino to take the thrilling five-set match, 12-10, 11-2, 7-11, 8-11, 11-9.
Muldoon and freshman Filip Michalsky both dropped tough four-set decisions; Muldoon took the first set of his match before dropping the next three, while a late rally from Michalsky fell short in his match.
“Although we didn’t get the results we wanted this weekend, we saw positive signs in some of the matches,” said Cabot. “Our program is headed in the right direction, and these are the kind of programs we expect to be beating in the future.”
The Bobcats are back in action on Friday, January 25th, when they will host Boston College for Senior Night.
